Is Brevard County's economy strong enough to dissuade some new jobs from coming here?

Employees of North Carolina-based MG Foods Inc. prepare food items for distribution to the company’s clients. MG Foods is considering expanding into Melbourne, creating 95 jobs over the next three years.(Photo: Provided)

Some states need more agriculture workers. Others are seeking back-office administration and support. In the Cocoa Beach area and other parts of Florida, experienced hospitality workers are in high demand.

And many places in the United States, it seems, need high-tech and skilled trade employees to replace the growing number of Baby Boomers who are retiring.

In February, the U.S. unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent. That's below the 4.5 to 5 percent natural rate of unemployment. If unemployment is less than the natural rate, businesses can't find enough workers to keep operating at full capacity. The number of long-term unemployed fell to 1.397 million.

(What's considered by economists to be the "real unemployment rate" remained at 8.2 percent, also at historically low levels. It includes those who are underemployed and marginally attached to work.)

In Brevard County the current jobless rate is 3.8 percent, a marked decrease from 4.6 percent a year earlier.

Most of the job gains in Brevard over the year came in manufacturing and construction. (Oddly enough, leisure and hospitality jobs over the year fell by 1.5 percent but judging by hotels and restaurants actively looking for workers that seems like a figure that can easily fluctuate.)

Some of these issues were broached last month as a group known as the Ad Valorem Tax Abatement Council discussed endorsement of a Brevard tax break for a food preparation company. The advisory group, which is under the umbrella of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, makes recommendations to Brevard County Commissioners for their ultimate decision on whether to give the company the tax break.

Tax abatement council members seemed to agree the wages for more of the 83 jobs that MG Foods was proposing for a new Melbourne facility weren't jolting — $12 an hour for production workers and six driver jobs paying $17 an hour.

And there was this issue, the packaged food items would likely be sold to Central Florida consumers. Sales would not necessarily be coming from outside Florida and dollars would just re-circulate.

Then again, if Brevard didn't encourage MG Foods to locate here, those jobs would likely end up in the Orlando or Tampa area.

The consensus seemed to be that the Space Coast should encourage almost any job growth when possible

Doug Dombroski, the City of Melbourne's economic development manager, who was the sole vote against endorsing incentives for MG Foods, didn't quite hold that view. Dombroski said it's a good project for Central Florida but the nature of the jobs, he believed, didn't fit the spirit of the state guidelines set forth by the ad valorem program.

The ad valorem program (also known as AVT) was aimed at inducing higher-wage manufacturing companies to locate in Florida vs. other states. In Brevard that includes companies like Embraer Executive Jets, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX and OneWeb.

Whether adding turkey sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs to plastic containers really is "manufacturing" seems a bit iffy form some people.

Said Dombroski, "The company is locating to Central Florida because there is a market here to sell their product to Floridians. My thought is the inducement is not necessary for them to set up shop in Central Florida. They are going to locate here regardless."

Doug Dombroski, Economic Development Manager, City of Melbourne(Photo: Provided)

Dombroski said the MG Food jobs fall within the “extremely low” category of wages. Making AVT benefits to them for jobs like they're suggesting is why people are sometimes are critical of the tax-break program.

There's a fear that AVT will become more of a political hot potato than it already is and deals like the MG foods might provide ammo to critics.

"We do not want to make a decision on one application which might jeopardize the program altogether in the future, because we all see the value of the AVT program," Dombroski said.

If the local labor market stays as hot as it is, it's a safe bet that arguments like the one Dombroski and others are making will grow louder and stronger.

Price is Business Editor at FLORIDA TODAY. He can be reached at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.